Beyond the Twilight Veil
by turn right
Summary: One by one, the students at Konoha's school have been going missing without a trace. Declaring a state of emergency, Tsunade sends Kakashi out on the dire mission to find the children.
1. Prologue

**Title**: Beyond the Twilight Veil  
**Summary**: One by one, the students at Konoha's school have been going missing without a trace. Declaring a state of emergency, Tsunade sends Kakashi out on the dire mission to find the children.  
**Rating**: Teen, for now. I haven't yet decided how in-detail I will get.  
**Notes**: It's Kakashi/Iruka centric, however, I wish to try and keep their relationship ambiguous. Slight AU.

* * *

_Prologue_

"-but, Tsunade-sama!" Iruka pleaded, barely suppressing his frustration. His hands clenched and unclenced at his sides as he tried to hide the dispair in his face. His jaw set in a hard line as he grimaced before continuing in a much quieter tone. "I...I cannot just sit idly by... They are my _students_."

A silver-haired jounin watched the distressed teacher next to him with a lazy eye. His flat stare softened and he turned to the Hokage. She regarded both men standing before her, gaze lingering much longer on the trembling man. There was a wild look in his dark eyes. The desperation there sent a chill up her spine. Closing her eyes, Tsunade sighed, a terse look coming over her face as she thought on the recent events.

It had been a long week. The students at the Academy had been disappearing, handfuls at a time. Now all of the students - all of _Iruka's_ students - were missing. Gone without a trace. The last two had disappeared only one hour ago, at best. However, they had left the best and only lead.

A blood trail.

The students were not taken without a fight. The blood, although a brief glimpse of hope at finding them, had grim tidings. They could track it across the world if they had to. They _would_ track it. But, in everyone's minds lingered the deep, dark fear that no matter how hard they tried, nor how far they followed it, it would lead to naught - that the children would all be dead.

Kakashi could feel the tension building in the room, rolling off of the sannin's shoulders in great, crushing waves. His one-eyed stare became serious as the silence continued long after she opened her eyes. Tsunade's piercing gaze was locked on Iruka, and the tan chuunin nearly wilted beneath it.

"I'm sorry, Iruka," she said, a hard edge to her voice. "I cannot let you go. You are too emotionally charged to handle this mission with a clear head." Her mouth becdame a grim line. "Go home, Iruka." The flat stare that followed stopped whatever words the tan chuunin had been chewing on, turning them sour. His face twisted, eyes hurt and furious.

Iruka stood there for a few moments longer, assessing the woman, before nodding stiffly. "Yes, Hokage_-sama_," he spat. With narrowed eyes, he stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

Kakashi nor Tsunade said a word for a long moment, and neither could help but feel that the angry academy teacher would be the center of a lot of trouble. The Godaime sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Kakashi," she said softly, suddenly feeling twice her age. "Find the children and bring them back. _Whatever it takes_."

Tsunade heard him draw a few steps closer, and then a warm hand clapped her on the shoulder gently, and squeezed. "Whatever it takes, Godaime," he muttered before vanishing in a slight twirl of smoke, leaving Konoha's leader to her thoughts.

"Good luck, Kakashi..."

* * *

To be continued...

Sorry it's so short. I just didn't feel right continuing with what I have so far. x: Just a general opening, I guess.

Sorry if characters seem OOC.


	2. Three Little Pigs

**Title**: Beyond the Twilight Veil

**Summary**: One by one, the students at Konoha's school have been going missing without a trace. Declaring a state of emergency, Tsunade sends Kakashi out on the dire mission to find the children.

**Rating**: Teen, for now. I haven't yet decided how in-detail I will get.

**Notes**: It's Kakashi/Iruka centric, however, I wish to try and keep their relationship ambiguous. Slight AU.

* * *

_Three Little Pigs_

Although Tsunade told Iruka to go home, he really did not intend to follow her orders. However, once he left the Hokage's office, the brown-haired chuunin felt the hair prickle on the back of his neck as two sets of prying eyes settled on him. When they did not leave after he had exited the building completely, he scowled. He was being watched.

Though, frankly, he wasn't surprised. Considering all that had happened within the last seven days, Umino Iruka believed that they were being somewhat lax. After all, the only students that had disappeared were in his care. Plenty of people believed that he was responsible, including himself. The lack of proof was all that kept him safe for the moment, though the suspicious stares he received whenever he left his home were starting to get malicious.

It seemed that the less he was seen in public, the more guilty he appeared, however, whenever Iruka showed his face, he could almost taste the open hostility, and with the school having been closed for six days now, and his shifts in the mission room cut short as more and more shinobi were called back, the young man had found himself with more and more time to kill.

Shoving his hands deep into the pockets of his pants, Iruka stared pointedly at his toes, avoiding direct eye-contact with others. After a while, he was able to ascertain where the shinobi tailing him were - one strolling some distance behind him, and another mounted on a rooftop. He frowned, stopping in the middle of the street, as he turned to stare at the desloate school building to his right. It felt cold and empty without the laughter of children. For a long moment, Iruka stood there, his heart beating in his ears, breaking.

The first night, four children had gone missing. When two more didn't return from playing in their backyards the next evening, a curfew was set, and all incoming civilians and shinobis were eyed almost as suspiciously as Iruka. They had hoped that everything would be all right with groups of the finest Konoha shinobi patrolling the streets from dusk until dawn, but it didn't end. Children disappeared from their beds at night, regardless of locked doors and windows, or even if they slept cradled in the arms of their parents.

It was then that fear became panic.

Konoha was falling apart as the backbone of the village was being dismantled piece by piece.

Iruka sighed and visibly shrunk in on himself as he continued the short trek to his apartment. He rolled ideas around in his head - desperate plans to wriggle out from under the careful watch of his _guards_. Nothing really stuck, and he quickly found himself very frustrated - irritated enough, in fact, to drop his keys when he tried to unlock his front door.

Shaky hands, after another failed attempt, managed to unlock the door, and he carefully peered into the house. It was quiet, and appeared untouched. No one had tripped his traps, which he was thankful for. Slinking in the rest of the way, Iruka closed the door softly behind him, and he disabled the traps one by one as he kicked off his shoes next to the door. Almost as an afterthought, he re-armed them. It was as he was finishing a sleep-bomb trap that an idea came to him.

If he could somehow coax the watchful shinobi outside _inside_, he may be able to catch them unawares. Traps littered his apartment, from flash-bombs and smoke-bombs to nightmare-bearing genjutsus. All doors and all windows - even the small one above his kitchen sink - were armed by at least one trap. All of the traps on the door were armed to go off simultaneously if only one was tripped, however, all must be deactivated in a particular order if one wanted to continue into the house. Same with those on the large front window and the window in his bedroom.

He knocked the lightswitch, and the livingroom light blinked twice before staying on. Looking around the joint living area and kitchen, Iruka let out an exaggerated sigh at the kitchen sink, laden with forgotten dishes. _I really should wash those..._ Again, his gaze wandered, and lingered for a hearbeat on the small cabinet above the fridge. Inwardly, Iruka smiled as he sulked to the sink. He had an idea, and, if his assumptions about the shinobi outside were correct, the plan would not fail.

xxx

There was a stillness settled over Konoha. The silence was like that of a graveyard - dreadful and deep.

In the overwhealming quiet, a small grumpy-looking dog scratched at his ears nervously. Beside him, a familiar silver-haired jounin crouched, a puzzled look on his face. "Pakkun," Kakashi muttered as he stared intently at the blood spatters around them. They were just outside of the residence where the last children had been taken. There was blood on the inside and outside of the window, and the blood trail was easily followed into the forest behind the home. However, there was something bothering him. The spacing between the drops was too similar. Everything was too linear. Too uniform. "Are you sure there is only one scent here?"

The aforementioned pug growled and sniffed once more before nodding. "I am sure, Kakashi. Other than dirt and wood, the only other smell is human blood." The pug dipped his head towards the spatter, which looked more and more black as the time ticked by. Twilight was approaching fast, and although Kakashi could handle himself quite well at night, the situation was becoming more and more dangerous.

His visible eye narrowed. _Dirt, wood, and blood... This is a high-activity area. There should be more. _Standing, Kakashi pulled up his hitai-ate, revealing the Sharingan. He scanned the area, and expanded his senses with his chakra, but felt no malicious intent nearby, nor chakra of any kind. The forest was as still as Konoha. He covered the eye again.

"Follow it, Pakkun. There's nothing more to see here."

xxx

Iruka was rather proud of himself. If he could pat himself on the back without breaking his cover, he would. Instead, he clutched the bottle of hard liquor tighter in his hands. His movements had been sloppy and volatile - fits of 'drunken' anger. The couch was overturned, and the kitchen chairs were in pieces. Picture frames, a mirror, and even his television lay on his hardwood floor, broken. Glass was everywhere, and so were his newly laid traps.

It was probably overkill, but if - _when_ - the two outside barged in, Iruka wanted to make sure that they'd be down for a while. Long enough for him to get a good distance away, at the very least. The tranquilizers and sleep gas should give him a fifteen minute head start. The flash bombs, another five to ten. If he was lucky, he'd have a full half hour to catch up to Kakashi.

Taking a few steps towards the main window, Iruka stumbled a bit, careful to avoid the shards of glass littering the floor. He stared out of the large window with half-lidded eyes, stopping a few feet short of the rigged pane, and pretended to take another long chug from the bottle. The room darkened fast with the fading sky, the living room light having long been broken in a bout of rage, and Iruka began to countdown the seconds.

While discreetly placing smaller flashbomb traps around his house, the chuunin made sure to place a very obvious, very dangerous trap in the middle of the kitchen area, in full view of the people outside. He was sure they would ascertain it's use while he made it, and the alcohol supposedly filling his system made it almost a surety that they put two and two together. If not, well, he would resort to Plan B: _Run like mad._

Sniffling loudly, Iruka rubbed his face with a forearm. It was now or never. Turning, almost a bit too fast, he began a slow trudge to the kitchen. He swayed slightly beneath the lethal trap, as he stared up at the ceiling, trying to pinpoint the exact position required for a kill.

He took a step a fraction of an inch to the right, looked out the window mournfully, and put his hands together, curling his fingers into a familiar sign. Pulling together a bit of chakra, he focused on the trap. After another silent countdown from ten, he released the chakra.

All hell broke loose.

xxx

Kakashi followed Pakkun on the ground, footfalls quiet. Neither had spoken a word since they left the village to follow the blood trail, but they had slowed their pace considerably. With night upon them, Kakashi needed to rely on instincts and the steps of his companion to keep on track.

"Kakashi! Ahead!" Pakkun growled, pulling up short. Kakashi immediately stopped and bent his knees and elbows, quickly coming into a fighting stance. Ahead, a massive rock wall reached to the sky, and the jounin could barely make out the blood trail as it bore straight into the wall. There was no blood on the rock that he could see, and it was relatively flat. Tentatively, the pug continued forward and sniffed at the wall where the blood stopped. "It's the same here, Kakashi. Dirt, rock, wood, blood," he grumbled in a low voice. "This whole thing stinks, Kakashi. I don't like it."

Not bothering to respond, the man lifted his hitai-ate again. The sharingan spun lazily as he peered at the rock. Where the blood trail seemed to end, a dark opening - not much taller than himself and just as wide - opened into the moutain. When he closed the sharingan eye, the entrance was invisible to him. Reopening the eye, Kakashi could see it - a sinister, black mouth. "Pakkun. Summon Ūhei, and tell him to find the Hokage and tell him what we have found. There is an opening into the Hokage Mountain at the end of the blood trail. It will be invisible to the naked eye."

The pug stared up at his master, droopy eyes narrowed. "You should not go in alone, Kakashi. You should wait for ba-"

"No." Kakashi's voice was flat, and he shook his head slightly. "I cannot wait for back-up that I don't even know is going to come. There is a reason I was sent alone." _Everyone else could possibly compromise the mission. Too many emotional ties._

He kept both eyes open as he entered the dark hole, a kunai ready in both hands.

xxx

Although Iruka had played different scenarios in his mind, having them _all_ happen at the same time really threw him for a loop. He was very glad that he had _all_ of his windows rigged, and, as it turned out, the few simple ones he set up during Phase 1 of his plan were practically necessary. As it was, even with the precautions, Iruka almost didn't make it out of his apartment in one piece.

Blinking the spots of color from his eyes, Iruka raced across the rooftops. The moon and stars were bright, and gave him just enough light to see where one building ended and another began. However, it was a bit harder to see other shinobi hiding on the rooftops, or walking the streets below, and he had to resort to using supersonic clicks of chakra to see more clearly. It wasn't perfect, but in the blink-images he could see particularly round shapes outlined on buildings, or black-clad forms milling about in the shadows between buildings. It wasn't long before Iruka was forced to take to the trees surrounding the hidden village for extra cover.

_Ten minutes._

He wasn't far from the home where the last children were taken, young Kumiko Ito and her friend Hana. No doubt it would be guarded to prevent both civilian and shinobi prying eyes from interrupting the investigation.

_Fifteen minutes._

He gave the scene a wide berth, and instead tried to ascertain which way Kakashi had gone, assuming the man had left already. He walked slowly, his chakra clicks giving him blink-images of the area. There seemed to be nothing out of the ordinary. No footprints. No paw prints. No broken leaves nor branches. It didn't really tell him much of anything. Kakashi was the best Konoha had to offer, aside from _Lady_ Tsunade. If he didn't want to leave a trail, he wouldn't.

Iruka wished that he had left earlier when there was still light. He couldn't see color with his echolocation technique, and by now, the blood had seeped well into the ground. Huffing, he scowled softly as he tried again, blink-images coming faster in his frustration. "_Where is it!_" he whispered harshly before sending out a few more clicks.

A fast approaching figure caught his eye. It was short, low to the ground. It kept it's nose close to the dirt, as if following a particular scent. Iruka relaxed into a defensive stance as the creature slowed it's progress. Ūhei stopped a few feet shy of the battle-ready chuunin, and sniffed the air between them. "I have a message for the Hokage from Kakashi." As he spoke, Iruka lowered his weapon, and nodded. The way Ūhei stared at him, it was almost as if he expected the man to say something. ...Iruka had a feeling that the dog could tell if he lied.

Straightening a bit, he visibly relaxed. "I've been waiting. I am here as backup for Kakashi-sensei," he said flatly. It was almost cold. Iruka winced inwardly, and hoped the nindog didn't see right through him.

Ūhei sniffed at the air between them again, and stared at Iruka with bright eyes before bowing his head just slightly. "Tsunade will wait a bit longer, then. Follow me. I shall tell you what he shared with my pack leader." The dog bounded off, back down the trail, even before he finished speaking. Iruka followed him closely.

_Twenty-five minutes..._

The shinobi would be waking up soon, if they weren't awake already. Although Iruka had gained much ground on both of them, once they alerted the Hokage of what had happened, he had no doubt in his mind that he would have to worry about more than two disgruntled, temporarily blinded shinobi. More than likely, half of the town would be after him.

It took another twenty minutes or so to find the wall Ūhei spoke of. Kakashi had gone inside roughly a half-hour past, if the bandaged hound's sense of time was accurate, and Iruka very much doubted the dog was wrong.

He approached the wall slowly, and touched it above where the blood trail stopped. Instead of his fingers meeting the stone, they went right through it as if it weren't there. Iruka snatched his hand back as if burned, and clutched at his fingers, reassuring himself that they were there. "That," he muttered quietly, continuing to stare at that spot, "was a little unnerving."

Drawing in a deep breath, he relaxed again, and fixed a gentle smile on the canine. "Thank you for getting me this far. You should let the Hokage know what has transpired." Ūhei huffed, and continued his mission, as he had intended.

Now alone, Iruka faced the wall. He nodded once, mouth becoming a stern line before he closed his eyes. Another deep breath, and he strode through the wall and into complete darkness.

xxx

The two ninja moved further into the dark expanse, unaware of eachother. The silence was suffocating, and Iruka fought the urge to breathe. The stale air in the tunnel was as thick as the unsettling quiet, and a pit of dread slowly began to coil in his gut. Something was wrong, not just with the whole situation, but there was something _off_ about this passage. There was something _off_ with how someone could kidnap children, quite literally, right out from under the parent's noses and leave no trace of their presence.

One of the children taken was an Inuzuka. Another was a Hyuuga. The idea that someone - or _something - _could fly under the radar of an entire clan compound and take a child without even a scent to follow was foolish.

There was no way that a _human_ could perform such a feat.

The ball of dread coiled further, like a snake preparing to strike. It lurched fast and hard when a cackling voice echoed from all behind him, and Iruka slapped a hand over his mouth at his near cry.

"My, my, _my_," the voice crackled down from the tunnel entrance. "One little piggy, lost and alone." Iruka could not hear it, but the creature snuffled loudly before letting out a barking laugh. "Your two piggy friends can't save you now."

Screams echoed down the passage to Iruka, who stood stone still, knuckles white and cheeks bruising from the hand clamped hard on his mouth. The cries seemed to go on forever before they ended with a terrible gurgling sound. Iruka could feel his face grow pale as a new terrifying silence drew upon him. It was a silence that filled his ears and fed into the paranoia building behind his fast-beating heart.

* * *

Just so you know, this is unbetaed.

I was hoping to get this chapter up sooner to make up for the pitifully small opening, but, ah. I hit a few road blocks.

Semi-pleased with how it came out, despite the lack of editing.


End file.
